Although in grounded theory it may be discouraged to do a literature review before data collection and analysis:

http://www.qualitative-research.net/index.php/fqs/article/view/2313/3876

. . although this discouragement is not always felt appropriate, and early literature reviewing is advocated:

https://www.anu.edu.au/students/academic-skills/research-writing/literature-reviews/grounded-theory-literature-reviews

My own feelings are that you could review the literature before you commence and then while you carry out your qualitative research, regarding new concepts.

These papers might be of interest:

Randolph, J. J. (2009). A guide to writing the dissertation literature review. Practical assessment, research & evaluation, 14(13), 1-13.

http://lemass.net/capstone/files/A%20Guide%20to%20Writing%20the%20Dissertation%20Literature%20Review.pdf

Boote, D. N., & Beile, P. (2005). Scholars before researchers: On the centrality of the dissertation literature review in research preparation. Educational researcher, 34(6), 3-15.

Article Scholars Before Researchers: On the Centrality of the Disser...

It will be interested to read what others think.

Very best wishes,

Mary

In qualitative literature related to method, you can usually find a paragraph that clarifies which is the position of the literature review in the research process. The most typical examples are: grounded theory (you should not conduct a literature review before collecting data and analyzing them) and IPA (see the process of bracketing).

However, in the practice of conducting research, you need to be aware of what is in literature. This is the most efficient way for not creating something that is not original, for not wasting money and time.

In addition, there is the problem that the researcher is not a tabula rasa. As a consequence, the problem of being influenced by the previous literature and by his background is always present.

I think that this question is interesting for the reason that being transparent about the position of the literature review is a fundamental part of scientific communication (e.g., article). Being transparent about these aspect and other methodological choices is a crucial aspect of evaluating the rigor of the study.

For my dissertation which was a grounded theory study - I did a lit review in the beginning to establish an underlying rationale for the problem I was investigating, why I chose my research framework and how I developed my interview guide. I then did another lit review in my analysis section to link findings that emerged to existing data, so yes, I used previous research literature throughout my study

Hi Jacob. I would recommend taking a look at Merriam and Tisdell's book "Qualitative Research." They give rationale for doing the review at the beginning to give your research a foundation and theoretical framework, and to help ensure that you make a relevant contribution to your field. Important to your question, they also cite at least 5 additional authors who write extensively on the topic of the literature review. They, and the people they cire, could help supply some arguments for your work. Good luck!

It's is suggested to do review at the commencement of the study.You can find the gap with your study and establish the justification of your study.

I would suggest doing it before in order to understand sensitizing concepts.

It's not sensitizing it is all about justification of the study.

Whether it is qualitative or quantitative study/research or simply research the review of literature should be I repeat should be before, during and till the end of the study, analysis and report writing. It is a continuous process one can not restrict or limit this activity for a limited period.

With the help of review of literature we conceptualize the idea carry out the study perform the analysis and finally make a report of the same.

There are NO shortcuts, in this.

Thanking you

Ravi

Literature review provides rationality, gap and both theoretical and conceptual framework for the issue at hand. For providing a better unnderstanding of ur issue relevant literature should be reviewed before the reaserch start so that one could have a full comprehension of the issue. As for qualitative study concerns, without a specific theory, there is a need to review different aspects of the issue dealt in the past , providing a rational base for the issue and literature should also be reviewed during analysis and conlclusion to provide rationality to your findings.

The following publications may further help, particularly the views/arguments of Frankel and Devers (2000), namely: “Some believe that a thorough literature review should be conducted at the beginning of the research process, as is often done in quantitative studies…….These authors argue that……reading the existing literature can save time and help strengthen the study design. Others believe the existing literature should be reviewed only after the research is underway so researchers have an opportunity to gain some understanding of the phenomena of interest from the research participants’ perspectives......Reviewing the published literature earlier may impede the researcher from truly listening, observing, and remaining open to new concepts and ideas. Also, it is often unclear what literature should be reviewed, particularly if a primary research goal is discovering new theories or substantive knowledge…...” (see: Frankel and Devers, 2000, p. 255).

• Frankel, R. M. and Devers, K. J. (2000) Study design in qualitative research - 1: Developing questions and assessing resource needs, Education for health, 13, 2, pp. 251-261.
• Hart, C. (2007) Doing a Literature Review: Releasing the Social Science Research Imagination. London: SAGE Publications Ltd.
• Marshall, G. (2010) Writing... a literature review, Imaging and Therapy Practice, pp. 20-23.
• Randolph, J. J. (2009) A Guide to Writing the Dissertation Literature Review, Practical Assessment, Research and Evaluation, 14, 13, pp. 1-12.
• Templier, M. and Paré, G. (2015) A Framework for Guiding and Evaluating Literature Reviews, Communications of the Association for Information Systems, 37, 6, pp. 112-137.

My two cents:

Article Literature Review and Constructivist Grounded Theory Methodology

In a grounded theory study, your epistemological assumptions (and thus, the GT approach that you decide to use) will influence the role, time, and place of a literature review on your study/analysis and its reporting.

Hi, Jacob! I recommend you a very good paper that can be of help: Dana L.P.; Dumez H. (2015). Qualitative Research Revisited: epistemology of a comprehensive approach; Int. J. of Entreprenership and Small Business; 26(2). Good luck in your study! Anna Maria

Just want to discuss, I believe literature reviews can be conducted at any time the researcher deems them necessary for their research. For example, I have conducted a systematical, with a sense of critical review of my main theme for research (e.g., container shipping risk management), but then I discovered that the risk theoretical foundation of the field is fragmented, so I review papers about risk concepts to see which concept is suitable for my context.

Also, it depends on the extent to which your research is multidisciplinary. For example, my research includes risks in the digitalization process, so I also need to review papers in that field.

Another possibility is that a literature review can be the main part of qualitative research. For example, when the unit of analysis can provide the information you need, but you want to focus the research effort on another aspect of the research, you can do a literature review to find the bit of information you want, it might not be as rigorous as an actual analysis of the population. But let's be honest here. If the sole role of the phase is to identify items to be used in the primary phase of the model illustration or validation with limited managerial generalization, a literature review can be used as a minor qualitative research process.

I would recommend to start with a lit rev before you design your research project, long before the data analysis. you may need to add some more literature any time along the progress of your project. Lit rev should be a dynamic piece of writing which evolves according to your needs.

Lit rev is a continuous process and and it is recommended to adjust according to the need of your study.

Qualitative research designs tend to be theory generative rather than theory testing; therefore it is unlikely that a research question will be found in the form of a hypothesis or null hypothesis in the way that you would expect in conventional quantitative research. This does not mean however that the paper should not set out early and clearly what it is that the study is investigating and what the parameters are for that. The research question should be set in context by the provision of an adequate summary of the background literature and of the study's underpinning values and assumption

Qualitative research in public health commonly measures:

• personal/lives experiences (for example, of a condition, treatment, situation)
• processes (for example, action research, practitioner/patient views on the acceptability of using new technology)
• personal meanings (for example, about death, birth, disability)
• interactions/relationships (for example, the quality of the GP/patient relationship, the openness of a psychotherapeutic relationship)
• service evaluations (for example, what was good/bad about patients experiences of a smoking cessation group)

just do checklist of your project and work your way through this here are some example questions

Is a qualitative approach appropriate?

For example:

• Does the research question seek to understand processes or structures, or illuminate subjective experiences or meanings?
• Could a quantitative approach better have addressed the research question?

Is the study clear in what it seeks to do?

For example:

• Is the purpose of the study discussed – aims/objectives/research question/s?
• Is there adequate/appropriate reference to the literature?
• Are underpinning values/assumptions/theory discussed?

The idea that a literature review in a qualitative study should be done after the data collection and analysis was originally proposed by Glaser and Strauss (1968) in Discovering Grounded Theory. The idea was to avoid the kind of preconceptions that a literature review would create, and instead to focus entirely on the data itself.

Since then, there has been a consistent movement away from the view that knowledge of the literature would prevent a researcher from building a theory strictly from observations.

Thornberg, Robert (2012). Informed grounded theory. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 56, 243-259.

Thornberg, Robert & Dunne, Ciaran (2019). Literature review in grounded theory. In Anthony Bryant & Kathy Charmaz (Eds.), The Sage handbook of current developments in grounded theory (pp. 206-221). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Urquhart, Cathy & Fernandez, Walter (2013). Using grounded theory method in information systems: The researcher as blank slate and other myths. Journal of Information Technology, 28, 224-236.

I would also recommend reading this paper:

Abdulghani Muthanna (2019). Critical Qualitative Inquiry and Methodological Awareness: The Effectiveness of Face-to-Face Interviews in Changing/Enhancing Participants' Beliefs and Practices. International Journal of Research Studies in Education, 8 (2), 59-66 .

http://consortiacademia.org/wp-content/uploads/IJRSE/IJRSE_v8i2/3027_ijrse_final.pdf

Which is also reprinted in the Qualitative Research Group (AERA) Spring Newsletter, pp. 16-25

https://qualresearch.ua.edu/uploads/4/6/0/4/46040203/qual_sig_spring_2019_newsletter.pdf

Hope this helps!

All the best!

Once the research question is formed, we need to do a thorough literature review to find out what is already known. Then we can plan the study according our findings. While doing the study we have to continue our literature review to keep updated. If the research is for a postgraduate viva or a presentation , this is useful in answering questions.

Research tends to take place in a flow of reading that we at certain points focus and structure around emerging and crystallising problems and questions. We never start from zero. When a potentially interesting problem emerges, we need to determine whether our approach - for the moment let's say inductive or deductive - is right for nature of the problem. Inductive approaches crystalline the problem later than deductive ones, which need to determine it up front. So I itislly some literature will need to be reviewed to settle this ontogical issue. Then once you know what kind of problem you have, research questions can be clarified through a more epistemogical review, where you determine what is known or alleged to be known, what it is agreed is not known, and where there are conflicts. You then decide where you need to generate or gather more information to fill the knowledge "gaps" and determine the right methods to acquire the necessary form of knowledge. Sometimes the research will generate the need to do more incorporation of theory at a later stage if it's abductive., which is a bit more than simply keeping up to date. The point is that the nature and timing of the literature review depends on how the issues of ontology and epistemology are settled in its early stages (in some research for example where the method is already determined due to cost of training, expertise, equipment etc this is predetermined). In anthropological research, where the researcher is supposed to enter the field stripped of presuppositions (which is only ever hypothetical) it is nevertheless necessary to read extensively to grasp the research context as part of the process of field preparation. So the literature review both determines and is determined by the nature of the problem (ontology) and the type of knowledge needed to address it (epistemology).

We can take a cue from the Dissertations and research articles. Literature review precedes the research design, data collection and analysis. In practice too, we do follow this practice barring certain exceptions like Grounded theory of Glaser and Strauss. A literature review serves ourselves by letting us not repeat the work already done or published. It also poses certain areas/ cues for our interest that we can carry forward. It gives us a chance to understand the foundation so that we can build our houses on that.

In qualitative more focuse has to be given on methodology. But before that you have to have some sort of knowledge on literature that means to have knowledge about the problem background. After completing methodology, I suggest you to refine your literature review.

I am still working out the answer to this question myself, but whenever we actually write out the literature review, just finding the appropriate literature for a study is very time cosuming. Therefore, even in the early stages of preparing a proposal and other pre-writing activities, I think it is wise to at least start searching for literture, categorizing it, and making notes. If this qualifies as part of the literature writing process, then I guess we start way before actually conducting our study.

I agree with David Morgan for the reasons given by Glaser & Strauss (1968). However, not all qualitative research is synonymous with grounded theory. While a thorough literature review is not advisable for testing theory due to the preconceived biases it may engender, a general review of the literature for the purposes of becoming somewhat familiar with the Rx topic is permissible but should be confined to a 'surface glance,' if you will. Transparency for this endeavor at the outset is essential. I would refrain from categorization because it crosses a boundary towards researcher bias.

Thanks Elena, good point.

Interesting question.

I fully agree wit Stephen Andrew Linstead. It is time consuming doing a data collection without reviewing the work of others. Thought, literature review mostly provide the researcher with the secondary date, it is always needed to structure the content preliminarily and after that to begin collecting the proper literature for review or for study. Imagine or suppose you want to do some engineering applied research related to the Inertial forces, or for physical deformation of construction materials, how would you begin the research? I don't think you will start with the lab tests!

Sure before. Qualitative research affects selection of model for analysis, it is vital to begin with the qualitative ыегвню

I personally think that conducting literature research is necessary before anything else, simply to avoid similarities to other research previously published.

Novice researcher - would you expect to see a search strategy in a qualitative multiple case study. The methods are short and dont include anything on a literature search. My thought is there should be something if the paper keeps referring to previous literature or gaps in evidence?

before